Task One –Professional, ethical, and inclusive behaviours.
In this this task, you are required to demonstrate a professional level of knowledge and understanding in relation to ‘professional, ethical and inclusive behaviours’.
To complete the task, you should provide a written response to each of the points below, making appropriate use of academic theory and practical examples to expand your response and illustrate key points.
To help the reader, please make use of headings and assessment criteria references to signpost the assessment criteria being addressed.
- 1) Define the term professional and explain what it means to be a ‘people professional’. (AC 1.1)
- 2) Explore how the role of a people professional (either a generalist or a particular specialist) is evolving and the priorities this raises for continuing professional development (CPD) (AC 3.1)
- 3) Discuss the concept of ‘ethical values’, and how at least three ethical values that you hold personally, impact (or could impact) on your work as a people professional. (AC 1.2)
- 4) Explain why it is essential for people professionals to contribute confidently to discussions, and ways of doing this that are (AC 1.3): ▪ informed ▪ clear
▪ engaging. - 5) Discuss when and how to raise concerns when issues such as organisational policies or leadership approaches conflict with ethical values or legislation. (AC 1.4)
- 6) Provide a robust argument for ethical people practice that is supported by academic theory and details both the business and human benefits of people at work feeling included, valued and fairly treated. (AC 2.1)
- 7) Drawing on your own or a hypothetical example of providing a people practice solution to meet a particular need or introducing a new policy or initiative, describe:
- ▪ strategies for designing the solution/initiative so that it will be inclusive
- ▪ strategies for checking that, when in practice, the solution/initiative engages and meets the needs of all those it is aimed at. (AC 2.2)
Task Two – Professional Development
This task requires you to evidence your commitment and approach to continuing professional development (CPD). It is divided into three activities, which must all be completed.
There are 2 different options for how you complete the 3 activities: these are ▪ The CIPD Profession Map Self-Assessment Tool,
▪ Offline documentation.
You should read the ‘General Instructions for the Activities’ first. Then read the ‘Guidance for Completing the Activities’ following the specific option you have chosen.
General Instructions for the Activities
ACTIVITY 1 (AC 2.3, AC 3.2). Using a range of information, including feedback from others, assess
your practice against the FIVE CIPD Profession Map core behaviours listed below. behaviours (all to be selected at associate level) are:
▪ Ethical Practice
▪ Professional Courage and Influence ▪ Valuing People
▪ WorkingInclusively
▪ Passion for Learning
The 5 core
Evidence to be presented:
- ▪ In the main body of your assignment, write a short summary (approx. 150 words), of the information used to inform your assessment
- ▪ Add your assessment pages as an appendix. ACTIVITY 2 (AC 3.3) Having identified your main development needs in relation to these 5 areas, formulate appropriate development activities to meet these needs and add these to your professional development/learning plan. Evidence to be presented:
- ▪ In the main body of your assignment, write a short explanation (approx. 250 words) for your choice of development activities
- ▪ Add the relevant pages from your development/learning plan as an appendix. ACTIVITY 3 (AC 3.4) A key element of CPD is reflecting on the impact of our learning, so that we can make further decisions about how to progress. Select 3 formal or informal development activities you have undertaken over the last 12 months and reflect on how each of these activities has impacted your behaviour and performance. (Consider how effective the activity has been and the extent of its impact. You might also consider what new needs or action points the activity raised for you.) Note: this reflection is retrospective and not connected to the activities planned in activity 2 above. Evidence to be presented:
– Written reflections on 3 development activities (approx. 750 words)
Guidance for Completing the Activities (select ONE of the options below)
OPTION 1: The CIPD Learning Hub self-assessment tool and learning plan. This can be accessed at https://learninghub.cipd.org/d2l/home/6720.
- ▪ For the self-assessment (Activity 1), access the tool (see link above). Select ‘Self-assessment’, ‘Associate level’, and add the 5 required behaviours – then complete your scoring. As you work through, take copies/screen-prints of each assessment to add as an appendix to your assignment. If you forget or make a mistake, simply opt to redo the process.
- ▪ For the formulation of development activities (Activity 2), follow up your self-assessment by selecting ‘View recommendations’ where you will be able to select and add different activities to the ‘My Learning Plan’. Whilst the system presents you with suggested activities, it should be clear to your assessor that you have selected/added options that you determine to be most appropriate for your needs. Take copies/screen prints of the activities you have formulated to add as an appendix to your assignment.
- ▪ For the reflections activity (Activity 3), select ‘My CPD Reflections’ and complete the ‘reflections ‘forms’. Embed these into your assignment (or attach as an additional PDF report if preferred). However, please ensure you still comply with the required word count for this activity. (Important information regarding screen shots: We recommend that learners edit out any personal data on their screen before submitting screen shots. This can be done quite easily using, for example, the ‘snip and sketch’ facility built into most office-based software and explained online as well as in our CIPD tutorials.) OPTION 2: Offline Documentation.
- ▪ For the self-assessment (Activity 1), we have provided an example template for the first 2 core behaviours at Appendix 1 of this assessment brief. If choosing this option, please extend the templates to include all 5 of the required behaviours and complete them by adding an ‘X’ in the relevant columns. The templates should then be added as an appendix to your assignment.
- ▪ For the formulation of development activities (Activity 2), determine appropriate development activities to meet your needs in relation to these 5 areas and add these to your (own format) professional development plan (PDP). The relevant pages (extract) of your PDP should be added as an appendix to your assignment.
- ▪ For the reflections activity (Activity 3), provide your written reflections within the main body of your assignment.
Level 5 Associate Diploma
TASK TWO
Your evidence must consist of:
1. A short written summary of information used to inform the assessment (Approx. 150 words) plus, CIPD Learning Hub ‘Self-assessment’ screen shots OR assessment templates for all 5 behaviours. (Attached as appendices and not included in word count.)
2. A short written explanation for choice of development activities (Approx. 250 words)
plus, CIPD Learning Hub ‘My Learning Plan’ screen shots OR relevant pages (extract) from PDP (Attached as appendices and not included in the word count.)
3. Written reflections on 3 different development activities, presented either in CIPD Learning Hub ‘My Reflections’ format or as a free text written section within the assignment. (Approx. 750 words).
Approximately 1150 words in total, refer to CIPD word count policy
Solution
5C003- Professional Behaviours and Valuing People
Table of Contents
Task One- Professional, Ethical and Inclusive Behaviours. 2
1.1 Meaning of Professional and People Professional 2
People Professional Meaning. 2
3.1 Role of People professional (generalist/specialist) evolving and priorities raised for CPD. 3
1.2 Ethical Values Concept; Ethical Values Held Personally impacting people professional roles. 4
1.3 People Professionals Contributions Confidently to Discussions and ways of doing this; 6
2.2 People Practice Solution for meeting a need or introduction of new policy/initiative. 8
Activity 1: Summary of Information Used to Inform the Assessment. 9
3.2 Practice against 5 CIPD Professional Map Core Behaviours. 9
Activity 2: Choice of Development Activities. 9
3.3 Development activities for meeting three needs. 9
Activity 3: Written Reflections on 3 Development Activities. 10
3.4 Reflection on Activities impact on behaviour and performance. 10
Appendix 1: Behaviours Self-Assessment 14
Appendix 2: CPD Reflective Log. 18
Appendix 3: Development Plan. 20
Task One- Professional, Ethical and Inclusive Behaviours
Task 1: Question 1
1.1 Meaning of Professional and People Professional
Meaning of a Professional
A professional comes from a profession. According to ACP (2022) a profession is a disciplined group of people adhering to ethical standards and holding themselves out as and accepted by public as having special knowledge and skills. This is in a broadly recognised body of learning obtained from research, education and training at high level. They are also found to be ready in applying the knowledge and exercising the skills for the interest of the rest. Therefore, a professional is a person deriving income from specified knowledge and experience. Their work is regulated by professional bodies identified in Swann et al. (2021) as oversighting their knowledge, skills, conduct and practice of the specific profession or occupation. For instance, nurses are regulated by Nurses Regulation Union with UK doctors working under National Health Service (NHS).
People Professional Meaning
Considering the CIPD HR Professional Map, a people professional is defined in CIPD (2022) as ‘supporting vision and goals of an organisation by great people interventions’. This is since entities are comprised of people, they play a main function of empowering their organisations in thriving personally and in a collective basis. With their different roles varying, the reasons for becoming a people professional is as summarised in figure 1;
Figure 1: Summary of being a people professional
Further, in line with the CIPD HR Professional Map, a people professional is defined by possess personal values (Sezer et al., 2019). These are identified as including;
Fairness- As evidenced in CIPD HR professional map core behaviours, fairness entail an equal or impartial treatment of the rest equally despite of having differences in age, race, gender, religious and more protected characteristics (CIPD, 2017). For my role, I ensure that all people/stakeholders in my organisation are managed with fairness and not discriminated.
Honesty- According to CIPD (2022a) the people professional actions and behaviours ought to be defined with high-level honesty. This is by operating within set legislations, rules which lead to unintended outcomes. As a people professional, I own up to any mistake I make and take the blame.
Exclusivity- This is defined in Forbes (2018) as a requirement where people professionals need to dedicate themselves fully to their organisation. The outcome of this is increased performance and productivity.
Professional Integrity– A people professional is mandated with a role of establishing, maintaining and developing business relations confidently, trust-based and mutual respect. This is while exhibiting and role modelling good behaviours. In my practice, I always embrace honesty, respecting others and focusing on assuming responsibility for any of my decision or action made.
Task 1: Question 2
3.1 Role of People professional (generalist/specialist) evolving and priorities raised for CPD
Adopting the definition of Personio (2022), CPD is ‘a combination of approaches, ideas and techniques which assist in management of individual learning and growth process’. Further, CIPD (2022b) argued that credibility of people profession is informed critically on level of being committed to continuing self-improvement.
Reflective practice is defined in CIPD (2022c) as a process of thinking about or reflecting on what an individual do. It has a direct correlation with learning from experience. From my personal experience, in every 3 months, I pursue a reflective practice where I reflect on thinking on what I did, what occurred, and eventually making a decision on what need to be done distinctly in future.
Considering how the people profession is changing, the areas of considerations include;
Transition from Administration to Strategy
As evidenced in Forbes (2013), the people function is transition from administrative to strategic roles. Before emergence of COVID-19 pandemic, the administrative function was identified as being rare for HR teams. The demand for technology increase has positively contributed to supporting talent management programs and critical engagement assessing and developing talents. For example, in MNGHA Saudi Arabia (KSA) organisation, the HR is primarily strategic. This is since it is found appropriately aligning organisation employees with the entire goals.
People-focused practice and tech-savvy
Since 2010, Chang-Richards et al. (2022) argue that the HR function is increasingly transitioning to become people-focused and tech-savvy. This is being achieved through improvement of the resourcing and management process. With the technologies significantly changing, innovativeness embrace is currently a significant approach in doing things. The challenge for this in MNGHA organisation where I have worked as a people practice professional include missing out on strategies and tools which are core game-changers. The areas of focus include big data, mobile tools use, integrating social media platforms, embracing globalisation, tech-up training, and grasp analytics.
Increased specialisms and job titles
For people professionals, there has been multiple concepts which did not exist previously and are currently in place which were non-existence 50 or even 15 years ago (Forbes, 2022). These include and not limited to gig economy. Similarly, the job titles and areas of specialism are being changed for reflecting to these changes. For instance, for MNGHA, there are new job positions which have emerged such as Chief Happiness Officer, Chief Heart Officer and Lead People Data Scientist. For these new job positions, they prioritise on the employees as individuals and not basically as resources.
Task 1: Question 3
1.2 Ethical Values Concept; Ethical Values Held Personally impacting people professional roles
As evidenced in CIPD (2019), ethical values ‘offer moral compass in which we live our lives and make decisions; doing the right thing because this is the right thing to do’. Further, in the CIPD HR professional map, CIPD (2022d) note that ethical practice represent the core behaviours which evidence the scope of its impact on people lives and organisation reputation.
The examples of personal values held include;
Equality- For a basic point of view, AIHR (2022) highlight the process as treating all (candidates) employees in a similar manner and providing them with equal opportunities. This is irrespective of age, gender, race, religion, sexual background and demographic. For instance, in my recruitment process in MNGA, all employees are offered with similar amount of time for completing work assignment as a requirement in the resourcing process. The impact of this to the employees is feeling appreciated in their roles and hence ready to take part in their recruited roles. This is while improving the overall retention of the employees.
Valuing others- In the CIPD HR Professional Map, valuing others is categorised as core behaviours (CIPD, 2022e). This is a process of valuing what others offer to the organisation and is core to ensuring that people perspective is integrated in business decisions. Working in MNGHA, by valuing others, the employees improve on their dedication of providing customers with required services. This end up serving the organisation greatly. Part of my role is ensuring that I am empowering the employees and encouraging them in using their intellect and ideas in executing their roles in their jobs. At one point when the employees were feeling unappreciated, MNGHA had recorded all time low performance with the employees lacking essential productivity hence affected in their business operation.
Fairness– As described by CIPD (2022f) treating all employees fairly is a practice of balancing all stakeholders in regard to their interests and facilitation. For instance, working in MNGHA, I achieve this by making sure the policies and practices in rewards management are characterised by fairness. For instance, in rewarding the employees, I ensure that both men and women working in similar roles are paid equally. This is with gender pay reporting adequately being facilitated in their operations. By fairly treating all employees, the organisation trust is improved, their morale increased, deepening loyalty with productivity increased. In instances where fairness was not exercised, the employees affected had limited productivity and got involved in deceptive behaviours hence their turnover being high.
Task 1: Question 4
1.3 People Professionals Contributions Confidently to Discussions and ways of doing this;
Informed
Considering the CIPD HR Professional Map, professional courage and influence is categorised as core behaviours. According to CIPD (2022g), the professional courage (and influence) for the HR, OD and Learning professionals is core in today world of truth, justice and concept of being right distorted and weaponised. Hence, by being informed, people professionals source on both qualitative and qualitative data to engage in informed discussions. For instance, for absenteeism cases in MNGHA, discussions are implemented by using interviews and questionnaires surveys for appreciating the best practice of managing the absenteeism cases. Further, through benchmarking, it is possible to understand how other organisations are managing such cases hence get into such discussions while informed.
Clear
Further, as noted in CIPD (2022g) this include a process of embracing clarity on ethics, morality and fairness. This is evidenced by being on the side of good, virtuous and just results core for people practice professionals. The impact of this is identified by Fernandez and Gallardo-Gallardo (2020) as being a precursor of productivity where lack of it lead to stress and confusion. Hence, by embracing clarity in discussion, it is possible to increase productivity by improving personal effectiveness and performance of an organisation.
Engaging
Engaging include the ability of embracing critical thinking, problem-solving skills and high-level thinking skills. Through an engaging, it is possible to recognise the context and adapting the best approach suitable for the audience. For instance, in MNGHA, prior any discussions, I ensure that I pursue needs analysis to understand their expectations, areas of weaknesses which aids in pursuing effective discussion and engagement.
Task 1: Question 5
1.4 When and How to Raise Concerns when Organisation Policies or Leadership approaches conflict with Ethical Values/Legislation
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